Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Hey guys! Everything is going well here. Our normal day consists of walking Pippin, going to work (blah!), signing papers regarding the home purchase/sale, talking to realtors/mortgage ppl/inspection ppl, having some dinner, packing and squeezing in a few treadmill miles. I've been working hard this week to squeeze a few miles in here and there so I can still stay over 100 miles for the month (my minimum year round goal - very easy to meet during peak training times!). I worked on my training plan for the Twin Cities Marathon today at work. It's going to be time to amp up the miles really soon!!! Oct 1st will be here before I know it.

Everything is going fine with all the house stuff. The appraiser came to our house today and the realtor put the big SOLD! sign in our yard this afternoon. Yeah!! All 50 papers were gone, so it was time for the Sold sign to go up so people will quit pulling up outside and staring at our house. We have the inspection for the house we're buying Friday afternoon. That should be exciting! I plan on taking lots of pics! The guy we're buying the house from seems really nice. He and his fiance bought an old Victorian mansion (1899, I think) and they've been renovating it. Our realtor actually saw it today and she said it's beautiful. It's 4,500 sq ft on 2 acres in the middle of the city, and they're planning to get married there this fall. Anyway, he offered to give us some of the leftover original hardwood floors from it for our new house. There's ugly carpet in the master bedroom we plan to pull up, there's hardwoods underneath but you never know what type of shape they may be in. So I thought that was really nice! We're going out to dinner with our realtor tomorrow night to celebrate and I think she's going to invite them! I already checked with her to make sure he can't back out if he ends up hating us - she said it's all binding and we could sue him if he changed his mind because we're dorks. HA!

Oh well, I am sleepy and ready for bed. Have a great Thursday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, June 26, 2006

WE GOT IT!!!

WOOHOOO! Or Yeehaw as we say down here! We got the house! Our agent called a little while ago to let us know the guy didn't counter ANYTHING! Crazy, but whatever!! So, on July 13th our adventure here ends and a brand new one starts! We told Pippin but he doesn't seem to understand (although he's a little frantic all the time watching everything go into boxes!) Our realtor is going over tonight to get the signed contract so now we just need a clean inspection and appraisal. Lord knows what an inspection on a house built in 1910 will uncover, but we'll see! Brent and I will definitely have to drive by and take some pics now to post. But for now, I'll just tell you it's Victorian, super cute, 11 ft ceilings, original wood floors, 3 fireplaces (including one in the Master) and it has a little wall urinal in the master bath - something Brent has ALWAYS wanted. (Must be a guy thing).

We were antsy all day and now we're just ready to move! We packed a lot tonight, including dismantling the guest bedroom. No one will be trying to stay with us now!!!!!!

Well, I'm really behind on reading about what you guys are up to so it's time to read a little and then get some sleep.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Golden!!

I am sooooo tired. We all are, Pippin included.

Here's the weekend rundown. Work was agonizingly long Friday. My boss left at noon to fly to Texas to spend some time with his family, and he's taking tomorrow off, too. YEAH! He's been an extra big jackass the last few days - pile that on top of 2 cars acting up, and the stress of buying and selling a house, and there was one moment last week at work where I nearly broke down in tears. My parents decided to add to that stress by planning a visit to see us. Well, not really to see us, but to use us as a free hotel. They are so incredibly cheap. My aunt was flying into Nashville and asked my mom to drive my grandma up so my aunt could take grandma to her new cabin in North Carolina. So basically my parents wanted to crash our house while we're in the middle of all this because they're too cheap to spend $70 on a nearby hotel room. Anyway, my aunt's plane ended up being delayed so she bought my parents an adjoining hotel room so they could stay with grandma until her late flight got in. I love my aunt!!!! Every time my parents visit they manage to break something, and I am not in the mood to do house repairs. We did have dinner with them and they came over afterwards. We endured about 3 or 4 hours of them going on and ON and ON about how we have the perfect place out here in the suburbs and we're basically stupid for wanting to move into the city and basically we're going to be shot, stolen from, and killed in our new house. I have no idea why they consider themselves experts on where we're moving since they have NEVER been there and know nothing about Nashville. It was an incredibly frustrating night. My grandma (who is 90-something) is now infatuated with weight. During the middle of dinner she wanted to know how much I weigh (around 119). She then told me I didn't look like I weigh that much (she weighs about 88 pounds and is probably 4 ft 10 now). I told her I was all muscle. Then at our house she wanted to know how much Pippin weighs. I lied and said 25 pounds, he's really closer to 30.

They left around 9 and we got all our race stuff organized and ready for the morning. (Of course my parents didn't even want or offer to come and watch our race!! My brother and I say they are not the most encouraging or supportive of people......) When my alarm went off Sat morning at 5:45 I had the SAME thought I always have on race morning "UGH! Why do I do this??? This is not fun!!!" but I got up anyway. A bowl of oatmeal later we were headed downtown. The race we did was the 5K for Fatherhood down at Shelby Park near where we're moving. It's a benefit for the Family Foundation Fund, an AWESOME organization that works with inner city boys with no male influence in their lives. The boys are paired with male mentors to provide a positive influence on them. A lot of the kids participate in the race along with their mothers and mentors. It's always SO much fun to watch the kids - some of them are serious athletes in the making, and it's for such a great cause. We don't do a lot of 5Ks, and we REALLY don't race much in the summer, but this one is always worth it. It's extra special because it was the first race we ever did back in 2004, and last year it was the first time I ever placed (I was 2nd in my group then.)We showed up with plenty of time to spare - but they already had the park roads blocked off. Hmmmm....we tried to figure out how to get over to the pavilion where the race start is, but ended up going through some roads the wrong way and landed on the baseball fields. What makes that worse? Having a million other cars follow you like you know where you're going. Sorry guys! We finally made it, checked in, geared up, and it was time to run!!! Saturday morning was a little cooler (prob 80 degrees), but it was SO humid. The air was so thick we could barely see downtown for the haze. It felt nice standing around, but it was really tough when we started running. Brent took off like the gun was fired in his pants. I started slow and slowly started picking up my speed. I passed Brent around a .25 mile in. A lot of the kids had already stopped running and were walking. This is a fairly small race (maybe 150-200 runners) and it's not chip timed so you really don't want to start in the back. I decided to push as hard as I could the first mile, and then slowly back off in miles 2 and 3 to whatever felt comfortable. I finished mile 1 in 7:30. SWEET! A guy was sticking right behind me forever, and since I was tired and HOT that really annoyed me. I dropped him at the halfway water stop. I really just wanted to quit the whole way, but I knew my Mile 1 time was good so I wanted to keep it rolling and maybe have a new PR. The course is flat (mostly), so that was an advantage. Mile 2 was right at 8:00 even. Not bad. Mile 3 takes you around the lake, and I could see the top guys heading back from their lap towards the finish. No fair. By this point I was worried about puking. I was so incredibly warm and I really felt nauseated. We were approaching the finish and some guys around me started sprinting. I knew I couldn't keep up with them but I saw the clock and pushed as hard as I could.....I finished in 24:36!!! SWEET! A massive new PR. My previous PR was 25:50 set last October. Avg pace: 7:45 (my Garmin also said I went 3.17 miles). I headed back to cheer in Brent (his time was somewhere right around 26 minutes) and we got some post race goodies.

Finally it was awards ceremony time.....The race has grown quite a bit but I was still hopeful I would place. They got to my age group and......I was 1st!!!! YEAH!!! I'm not sure how many people were in my age group but all that matters is that I was the fastest 25-29 year old female! I walked up and got my awesome gold medal. Brent's group was a lot more competitive (their 3rd place was 20 mins!) so he didn't get to place. Afterwards they did some group shots for any placers who were still there. So, the 5K was a great success!

Afterwards we showered and met our agent to look at houses. The first one was a dud. This guy wants $800K for this house, which is $187/sq ft - NOT worth it. Most of them are selling for $140-$150/sq ft. And get this - he has Clif L Vivian spelling out in tile on the bathroom floor!!! HOW terrible!!! It was so gross. They need us to show them how to do ALL their tile work. Then, we looked at a great house. We LOVE this house. It needs some serious updating, but it's totally us. It's got all the bones we're looking for, and it just needs our touch. It even has a little wall urinal, which is something Brent has always wanted. It's a 1910 Victorian, right at 2200 sq feet. It's awesome. So, we put a bid in on it today!!!!! Now it's just a waiting game. Hopefully it will work out, we love this house! (I didn't take any pics because the owner was there.) We'll have to drive by and take some pics if we get it. So cross your fingers!!!

OK, this post is too long anyway! I'll talk about our miserable 10-miler from today some other time. I did finally get our pictures from the Tony Hawk/Shaun White skateboarding show up on my Flickr account. Check them out here! Oh, and handyman "Skeeter" showed up today and got our pesky inspection items finished. YEAH!!!

Thursday, June 22, 2006

We have a race on Saturday?

Hey guys! Just a quick post to let you all know we are at the very least alive. Stressed, but still breathing.

Monday we got back the nit-picky list of home inspection items we have to correct. They're all small and goofy items, but still just a pain to take care of. A coworker recommended a handyman name Skeeter. He came out Monday and gave us a good quote and was supposed to come either yesterday or today to make the repairs. We haven't seen him since. (We haven't paid him or anything, and if he doesn't come tomorrow we'll probably get so fed up we'll do it ourselves.) We also went and picked up my rental car. My "free" rental from State Farm would've been a tiny little hatchback. She offered me a Maxima, but I would've had to pay some extra $$, OR I could have a big 4-door Dodge Ram pick up truck for free. So I went with the big ass truck. I don't feel safe in small cars, if we had been driving a small car in October I know we would've been seriously injured or died. If everyone else drove a small car I would buy a Mini Cooper in a heartbeat. Until then, I'm driving something safe. Brent gave me the "oh dear God, can you drive a big truck?" look but it was too late. The Ram was mine. And OMG, that thing was enormous. It's totally built for a man. My Expy is woman cozy and all adjustable to be comfortable. The Dodge was all boy, and it has a TON of blind spots. Watch out for people driving those things!! They can not see you!!! I swear I would run over all kinds of kids if I had one.

Tuesday we dropped Brent's car off in the A.M. to have the tires rotated, then took my car to the body shop at lunch. In the middle of all this madness the battery on my car was messing up. It could only be started by jumping it, and we weren't sure if it was due to battery corrosion, or what. We had trouble getting it jumped, but it finally started so we headed off to the body shop. I was driving Brent's Jeep - which then started to overheat. I think that felt like a breaking point. I called him, but as long as I kept moving it stayed cool. We dropped my car off and then tried to pick up some lunch which led to more overheating. Brent dropped me off at work (I had a meeting) and then he went back to the shop that had rotated his tires and changed his oil. They're total idiots, but they filled up his radiator. But obviously not enough, because it overheated more while we were looking at houses with our realtor Tuesday night. We looked at 2 houses in a different part of town, but that part of town just wasn't "right". In fact it was just plain gross. We looked at 5 houses total. There was one I really liked, but the neighborhood wasn't the best. But it was really cool. We're going to look at more houses Saturday with our agent. We close on this house 3 weeks from today!!

Wednesday they called and told me my car was ready!! The guys over at Patterson Body Shop in Smyrna did an awesome job. All they had to replace was the bumper, but they had a brand new bumper overnighted. Team Chevrolet would probably spend over a week and still manage to screw it up. HOPEFULLY I will not be hit by anymore people, but if I am I would definitely go back there. They were great. They also looked at my battery and cleaned it, but it still wasn't enough. It was starting then, but when we went over to Advance AutoParts it wouldn't restart. It was really the connector - it was just too corroded. A guy was out changing a woman's battery so he helped us as well. The guys at Advance are also awesome. They're always so friendly and they've saved us so much money in knowing how to do this stuff ourselves. Our new connector was less than $2! I bet it would've cost $50 at a garage. I felt so bad for the guy helping us. It was 95 degrees at 5:30 last night. MISERABLE! We were all sweating like pigs.

It's just been TOO hot to run outside when we get home at night. Today was 97! I've been running on the treadmill at night, but that is SO boring. This Saturday we're doing the 5K for Fatherhood. I love this race. It's down at Shelby Park, near where we're looking at houses. It was the first race we ever did back in 2004, so it's sort of a race birthday feeling for me. It was also the first race I ever placed in my division (last year I was 2nd). I was hoping to be first in my division this year, but we'll see. I haven't been training hard lately, so I don't think I will be very speedy. It should still be fun, though!

Anyway, I am going to do some packing and maybe hit the treadmill! Have a great weekend and good luck to everyone racing!

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Cherry Limeades : the ultimate post run beverage

Hey guys! I hope you all had great weekends!

So, we've mostly been up to the same the past few days. The negotiations on the house we "thought" we liked ended up going nowhere. They had priced their house much higher than the recent sales, and the kitchen was small and laid out VERY poorly. We had planned to gut it and have it completely rebuilt. So, we offered, they countered (and really didn't come off their price), so we countered again and made sure our agent told them that was our final offer. We were also doing some major haggling over the move in date/time. They basically were giving us 5 hours to move out of our house. Uhhhh......right. So, even though they knew that was our final offer they came back with a ridiculous counter and we decided to walk away. At that point we had already decided it just wasn't worth it - when you threw in the money we were going to spend redoing the kitchen it was just too much to really be able to recoup our investment if we decided not to live there for a long time. The next morning my agent called me and said their agent was blowing up her cell phone - they had decided to come back and offer what we had countered with - but still wanted to jack us on the moving time. I told my agent we weren't interested anymore - we had actually started to feel RELIEVED we didn't get the house, all because of the kitchen and a pretty big lack of storage/closets and stuff like that. Buying a house is like Deal or No Deal - they should've gotten us the first time around, ya know. Oh well.

Friday we got a second offer on our house, so now we have a deal and a "back up deal". I think we've officially moved into the "no show" status since we didn't show all weekend. YEAH! I think we had about 15 walk throughs in 10 days. It was getting old. Especially since the agent who came through Friday locked our front door key into the lockbox, which freaked us out until someone from our realtor came over to check it. How good would we have felt if some psycho out there had kept a key to our house??? Saturday we went out with our agent to look at more houses. There was one BEAUTIFUL house that's just a little more than we want to spend, and a lot more house than we need. It would have been so perfect if they hadn't added the upstairs and if there wasn't an acre of yard to maintain!! But it was awesome - it had THREE kitchens!! It was hot. Maybe if they drop the price more..... There was one scary house with a girl next door who had an eye patch, there was one OK house and then one house that was waaay too small and out the window of the formal living room you could see some extremely graphic graffiti. Nice. I have pics I'll upload later. We went back to an open house today for a new listing. Houses are just SO hot in Nashville right now. If it's worth anything it's gone in 2 days. There were 3 houses last week that were listed and sold before Saturday that we missed seeing because we were hung up on that other house. At the open house today we ran into the owner of our local running store. She's shopping in the same area and we've been to ALL the same houses!! The one today was just a little small, it had a tiny kitchen and basically no closets. The deck was a mess, too. We went to some other open houses but they were all too expensive. So, tomorrow night we're looking at MORE houses with our agent. We've got 4 weeks from yesterday to find something, or get an apartment.

After we looked at houses yesterday we went to the free Journey's BBQ thing at Cool Springs Mall. We got to see Tony Hawk and Shaun White skate, and Switchfoot performed. Since it was free it was SO crowded. We got there right when TH & SW started skating, and we couldn't see half of the halfpipe. We slowly made our way closer, and by the end we had a good view. Right next to a drunk redneck who spent the whole time arguing with his bratty kids who at one point he called $hit a$$es. Nice. Then he started hitting them. Even better. The skate performance was much better than the redneck show. They did some neat tricks and of course we got some good pics! It was really cool to see TH in person. He's SUCH a legend!! The Switchfoot concert was really good, too. He's a great live performer, and most of the parents with small, annoying kids didn't stick around for it so that made it even better!

Yesterday morning we went for a 12 mile run. I set my alarm for 6:15 (UGH!) and we got up, had some oatmeal and headed over to the greenway. We got started right at 7:30. It was warm, but not terrible. We did two laps around the park and then headed down to the lake. It was so humid, but the sun was blocked by some clouds so that helped. When I got to the end of the lake path I stopped and waited for Brent, we drank some Gatorade and then headed back. The 2 mile stretch from the lake to the Army Guard was miserable. The wind was SO strong. It was my slowest mile, at 9:45. I felt like I was CRAWLING. The closer I got to the park the better I felt, and I just kept picking it up. For Twin Cities Marathon I'd like my avg pace to be 9:30, and have a goal time of 4:15. I really picked it up my final mile, so I know I had a lot more in me. My overall average pace was 9:12 which is right where I want to be at this part of my marathon training. I've got a long, long way to go so I'd like to keep pacing right around there. Brent finished a minute or two after me and on our way home he had the best idea ever: we should stop and get a Cherry Limeade at Sonic. We stopped and got a large, and OMG it was the BEST thing ever. It was so good. It's only a mile from there to our house and I swear it was all gone when we pulled in the driveway! It was SO sweet and refreshing. Cherry Limeades may be my recovery drink of choice now!!

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Grandma got run over by a Ford Expedition

Hey guys! So, how do I celebrate my 1 yr blog anniversary? By getting into a wreck. (sigh). But really, it wasn't that bad. And NOTHING compared to last October's wreck. I was heading back from lunch alone, Brent had skipped lunch because he had a dentist appointment. I was on Waldron Rd (in the 'burb of Lavergne where we work) and was getting in the turn lane to turn left on the street we work on when a lady trying to make a left turn out of Arby's whacked me. Stupid Arby's. The two lanes of traffic on her side had stopped to let her out, but I couldn't see that because of all the traffic/tractor trailers, and she was only looking to her right for oncoming traffic and never saw me coming. I saw her starting to pull out and honked as I slowed down, but she just never saw me and whacked my front right bumper. It made a massive crunching sound and I immediately called Brent. When I got out I tried to figure out where she had hit me - and finally saw two or 3 scratches on my front bumper. The tow thingy on the front of the Expy seemed to take a lot of the hit. Later I noticed that my right turn signal is pushed in, so that is a bit of a safety hazard. Her Camry? Well, the hood is REALLY screwed up. Obviously, I drive a Tank. And this morning I was considering get a Civic because they get 40 mpg and I was a little miffed that it's running us $65-70 dollars to fill up my Tank lately.

She got out of her car and was SHAKING. She was apologizing over and over again, and was pretty frieked out. She told me it was her first wreck, and at least she wasn't on her cell phone or a total jerk-ass redneck like the last woman. I started assuring her it was fine, and it was no big deal, and she kept trying to get me away from traffic. She was really upset, just a little old grandma who made a simple mistake. We call the police and Brent speeds up, jumps out and is about to lay into the little old lady when I stop him and tell him "it's ok" so he takes pictures instead. When it's fight or flight he's ready to take down any old lady who wants to run into me! I told him we were all fine and he could go back to work. The police arrive, he does his thing and sends us on our way. She was very nice, it all comes down to attitude. If she had been mean or rude it would've been a terrible experience. But we were both calm and friendly, so it just wasn't a big deal. When I called her insurance company this afternoon she had already started the claims process. She gave me her card, and it turns out she works for the new kitchen supply store nearby, so maybe she can hook me up with some gourmet kitchen appliances at cost!

I seriously doubt I will ever buy a nice, new car. What's the point????

I also got to meet the lady buying our house today! The inspection was at 4 and there was supposed to be another showing at 5. I ran in a little before 5 to grab Pippin and they were still "inspecting". She's very nice, I like her. She really likes the house, so I know she'll take good care of it. We should hear back about our offer sometime tonight! I know they will counter, so hopefully they will still be reasonable.

Well, that's about all the news around here (as if that's not enough of a day for anyone!). This morning as I was walking Pips I thought "Man, I'm so jealous of people who just have time to lay around and watch hours of TV." Then my thoughts really changed and I thought "You know, I'm really NOT jealous of those people. I'm jealous of the people who have time to get out and run and exercise! That's where the fun is". You just never know when your time is up, and if you waste it by being a gross, lazy couch potato that's totally on you. I know our schedules will slow down really soon, but until then......I'll squeeze in my runs here and there!

Here's another cute pic of Brent and Pippin I took today I would have put in here if stupid Blogger wasn't a PAIN in the ass!! I don't know why they just can't handle photos lately. It's so annoying!!! So sorry for all the links to Flickr, but I just have too many pics to share!!

Have a great night!

P.S. I'm working on updating my template with races, links, etc. It's SO out of date! It's a little funky right now but I hope to have it all sorted out this weekend!

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

A great reason to have a piece of cake!

Hey guys!! How's your week going? Ours is going pretty good so far. Our house is SOLD. We countered back and forth over the weekend, and the buyer accepted our offer Sunday and we signed some papers on Monday. Everything is (of course) contingent on the inspection and all that stuff, but the inspector comes tomorrow so hopefully by Friday our house will be SOLD SOLD and the circus of people coming through to look at it will be over. I think we're up to 11 showings so far and someone else is walking through tomorrow.

We also put an offer on a house tonight. It's very cute, a 1923 Craftsman style house. You can see photos here. All wood floors, great fences, picket fence in the front and the requisite porch swing. We know how high we're willing to go for this house, so we'll see what happens. If it doesn't work out we'll keep looking and maybe get a cool apartment for the summer and enjoy a "free" pool! Either way, on July 13th we'll be moving out of THIS house!

I squeezed in a 5-mile run inbetween work and when we got together with our agent. It was 83 degrees, with a pretty strong breeze at times. I was able to keep a 8:47 pace for the 5 miles, so that's OK. Not quite as fast as I'd like it to be, but after some pretty crappy runs lately I'll take it.

Can I also say I'm really pissed at Last Comic Standing???? They picked THE crappiest comedians tonight. The 2 people who were actually funny weren't picked. They have no taste in what's funny. I hate "physical" comedy but it seems the judges were really into it. Whatever.

Tomorrow is my 1-yr blog-iversary! I can't believe it!! I also can't believe how terrible my first entries were. I mean, I told my weight DAILY!!! How tragic!!! Who cares??? That's right up there with my coworker telling me yesterday that she was going to pick up oatmeal and milk on her way home. Who the hell cares????

So anyway, thanks to everyone for the 25,000 hits I've gotten since I started tracking that stuff, nearly a year ago. I'm not sure who all 100 of you are that read this every day, but thanks!! The past year has held all kinds of exciting adventures and I just know the next year will be even better. Hopefully it will also include more meetups with you guys!

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Duo in the Sun

Hey guys!! Guess what - this is a running post!!! Yee haw!! I just had to say that because this is a big weekend in Nashville - it's Fan Fair, baby! UGH!!!! Fan Fair is a weekend long country music dream-fest. Loads of country music singers signing autographs, having concerts and generally clogging up downtown with a total excess of Wrangler jeans and cowboy hats. Disgusting. Here's a convo between Brent and I about it from earlier this week:

Me: "I checked the Fan fair listing to see if anyone I liked would be performing this weekend."

Brent: "You mean Rascal Flatts?"

Me: "Yeah. They're not coming."

Brent: "That's the only group you looked for, right?"

Me: "Yeah. All other country music sucks."

So obviously, we're not going to Fan Fair. It actually grosses me out a little to think about it.

So anyway, this morning we ran 10 miles. I really, REALLY tried to get an earlier start. I set the alarm for a little after 7 and rolled out of bed OK. But by the time we had some oatmeal and got ready it was 8:30 and hotter than hell. It was already well into the 80's (it was 94 at noon today, ugh!) and there wasn't a cloud in the sky or a bit of shade on our running route. Around 2.5 Brent dropped back a little, but we still saw each other a few times as we'd meet on the out and backs so that would help with motivation. I have a couple of pre-decided places to stop if I feel my heart rate is getting too high, and I used all of them today. Once at the top of a hill around mile 4.5, then a shady spot around mile 6, the fountain at mile 7 where I really doused myself today, and then at the top of a hill at mile 8.5. by 8.5 I was feeling pretty good, and almost decided not to stop but decided I should anyway because the final 1.5 after that is total, complete, bright sun with NO shade whatsoever. I was really glad I took the break!! A minivan mom was really giving me the "crazy eyes" when I was twirling around in the misting fountains. She's obviously never gone for a hot run!! It felt SO awesome today! I could've stayed there ALL day! It gave me a ton of motivation and right afterwards Robbie Williams "Let me Entertain you" came on my mp3 player and I was feeling great! So great that at my mile 8.5 stop (which is at a stop sign on top of a hill) Dirrty by Christina Aguilera was playing and I got a little "jiggy with it" while I stood there in the shade drinking some Gatorade. Of course a little Coca-Cola car appeared out of nowhere. I'm sure he really enjoyed my "performance" and all I could think of when I saw him was how much I'd enjoy an ice cold Coca-Cola!!!!!! I was hoping he was like some of the little Red Bull Geo Trackers that drive around town giving out free samples, but no such luck. Oh well, with 1.5 miles to go I just kept on my merry way, gave Brent a high 5 when we met a little further down the road and finished my run in a pretty sucky time. I just HAVE to get out earlier!! There's now way we'll be able to survive the long marathon training runs this August starting out at 8:30 am. I was really spoiled training for a January marathon the first time!!!

I was COVERED in sweat when I was done, and right when I hopped out of the shower all the calls started. At 11:10 they called and wanted to show the house at 11:30!! AAAAH! We pushed them to 11:30, I pulled my hair back in a pony and we got out. Since our house went on the market Tuesday it's been shown 8 times!!!!! We're still countering with the person who gave us the offer yesterday, and hopefully it's going to work out. We're looking at 7 more houses tomorrow with our realtor, which will bring our total up to 19 houses we've looked at.

Friday, June 09, 2006

WE GOT AN OFFER!!!

Just a quick post to let you know we got an offer on our house!!!!!!!

Since it went up Tuesday afternoon we've already had 5 walk-throughs and we just got our first offer! They came pretty close to asking price, but our course we will counter. We wouldn't have to be out until July 17th, either. More walk-throughs are planned for this weekend and we're going to look at more houses Sunday.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

It takes a village

What’s the deal with Blogger??? It seems like during any of the limited times I have to post or comment it’s down, or not working right. How annoying! We may need to move blogs AND homes!!

So, here’s a quick update of what’s going on with us! Saturday I got up and ran 8 miles through the neighborhood. I slept in a bit too late and didn’t get going until 9 am, and it was HOT! Ugh!! I stopped in a couple of rare, shady spots to let my heart rate drop and cooled off in the misting fountain. I thought about calling it quits, but really got my head into the music playing on my nano and kept on pushing. I was able to keep a 9:20 pace, which I’m really not happy about but I guess I’ll take it. It’s cooled off a little this week, but it seems like I can never get fully acclimated to the heat. My last couple of miles were in the mid 8:00’s, so I know I physically still have it in me, I think I’m just mentally a bit exhausted lately.

The rest of Saturday we spent packing and getting some things organized here. We also made the pressure wash people come back out and reclean our windows since they had done a HORRIBLE job. Sunday we went with our realtor to look at some more houses. We started off at a great one that we really, really like. We’re going back to look at it tonight. From there we saw several more, but none of them were “it”. It’s always amazing to see a house once you read all the sales info about it. One of them said it would be great for someone wanting a fixer upper, and that you could live in it while fixing it. WTH??? It had a big condemned notice on the front porch! Sure, you could live in it in a tent in the backyard!! Some people are just nuts. Another one also mentioned it was a fixer upper, and was in TERRIBLE, crack house, animal pee infested status. We walked through one Tudor we liked, and then a really neat house built in 1899. That would be cool if it was in a better neighborhood, it was neighbored by two crappy apartments and some pretty ghetto rent houses. The investor had done a GREAT job rehabbing it. It even had a carriage house (for horses and buggy!) out back. How cool!!

We were up late doing more paint touch-ups and stuff around our house because our selling realtor came over Monday night! We went through all the paperwork, walked through the place and signed some contracts. By Tuesday at lunch the big For Sale sign was in our yard!!! One of my coworkers had seen it during his lunch break (he lives a few blocks over) and told us about it, so we weren’t even the first to see it! I’m sure all our neighbors are TALKING. They came and put the flyers out today and someone has already set up a showing for tonight. Sweet!! Sell, baby, sell! We’re not totally happy with the pics on the ‘net, so Brent is retaking them (I think we know how to take some pics!!)

Of course Pippin is having a BIT of a hard time with all this. His whole little life has turned upside down. For about a year (or maybe longer) he’s had free reign of our house at all times. When he got to the point where we didn’t have to worry about accidents or him chewing up things we quit crating him. He is NOT happy about his return to the crate. There’s been a LOT of barking when we put him in there. He’s getting a little better about it, but he’s still not happy about it, and when we’re home he is pretty much attached to me at all times. He knows something big is going on. We made a little sign to put next to the papers telling people his name and that he’s in a crate in our bonus room. Hopefully he won’t act up too much when people come through and he has to be here. Also we’re hoping most of the showings will be over the weekend/at night when we can take him to the park or something.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Can I get a MEE-OWWW

Hey guys! TGIF!! I can't think of a better way to spend a Friday night than relaxing in our house, reading a few blogs and letting you guys know about all the madness we've been up to. It's nice to just sit down, turn the cell off and spend some "me" time right now. (Side note: Stupid Blogger never would let me add pics so I put my pics on Flickr and have links to them where appropriate, sorry!!)

Since Tuesday we've had a lot going on. All the house stuff has really made my running suffer a bit. I've thought of trying to run in the a.m. and walk Pips in the p.m., but I am just NOT a morning person and I can't imagine getting up any earlier than my current 5:24 alarm and still being able to make it to work by 7:30 without passing out! I really admire Michele and Lana for the massive workouts they get in the a.m. Tuesday night I got in 4 miles on the treadmill. It was storming that afternoon and we had some other stuff to do, so it was sort of late before I had time to squeeze in for a workout. Those four miles (two of them, really) put me over 1,000 miles since I've been tracking my mileage. I didn't start tracking my mileage until last September, when I started training for the Miami Marathon. I also ended up with 102 miles for May, a little down from previous months but I did plan for May to be scaled down a little so we have a bit of a "break" before we start training for Twin Cities and Harpeth Hills Marathons later this month. The four miles were pretty uneventful - I watched House Hunters and another home buying/selling show on HGTV while I ran. I LOVE House Hunters!!

Wednesday we met our "buying agent" realtor for the first time. Our realtor has a massive team of people working for her. This particular agent (S) works with people to help them buy a house. We had selected 4 houses we were really interested in, and she was able to book 3 appointments for us (of course the realtor for the house we're most interested in didn't return her messages!!). We met her at their office here and then followed her the 20 miles into the heart of downtown. Every afternoon we've had these massive "monsoons". It's been so warm (90+ every day) that the weather just pops and we get these massive pop up thunderstorms pretty much every afternoon now. Wednesday was no exception. It was sunny out here in Suburbia, but a few miles in the bottom FELL out, and traffic on the interstate started creeping, which is strange considering we were headed into the city while most of the traffic was headed out. Considering the massive rain, thunder and lightning we figured there was a wreck. In reality, the interstate was flooded due to the "flash flood" nature of the storm". Craziness. Traffic had to crawl through one portion where water was pretty deep on the freeway, and then we were back up to speed. It was so hazy and stormy you couldn't even see the skyline even though it was right in front of us!

We stopped at the first house and walked through. It was pretty cute and has been restored quite well. The main thing we didn't like about it was the master suite. Most of these houses have had the attic turned into the master suite, and at this one the master suite just had no personality. It was very cold and all the materials they used up there were the ugly cheapo stuff you can buy at Home Depot. It just didn't look very cozy. But the second house - OMG. This house had been reduced $30K, which we thought I was strange because houses in this neighborhood go pretty quickly and typically don't need to reduce their prices. It's also purple and has a concrete countertops - which if done right are pretty cool. We walked in and were immediately greeted with a STANCH (southern for "stench"). The source of the smell was obvious in short order - cats - and helluva lot of them. There was no furniture in the living or dining room, but there was a cat pillow, and two cats walking around. We proceeded into the "dog ugly" kitchen with concrete countertops on oak cabinets (???? very ugly!!) And guess what....another cat was walking around on the countertops. The smell was insane. It just smelled like these cats hat peed everywhere. We kept walking around just to see the house, but that smell would be impossible to get out. We went upstairs to see the master suite, and when we opened the door there were THREE more cats. One of them was on the edge of his cat tower thing and was perched like he wanted to pounce on us and scratch our faces off. It was freaky. Brent took some video. The woman talking is our realtor, and the guy talking is Brent. It was crazy. There was a minimum of 6 cats in this house, but the way they were walking around it was pretty difficult to count them. I swear we smelled like cat pee after we left there. That house will never sell!!!

The third house we looked at was also one of our "top pics". We love the location and the street it's on. We walked in and it was gorgeous!! Beautiful tall ceilings, original pocket doors and baseboards - just beautiful. The original features in this home are awesome. Lots of fireplaces and 1920's charm. But some of the things the current owner had done are insane. He did a great job remodeling the kitchen - great granite and tile countertops, exposed brick, a nice gourmet kitchen. But some things were just WEIRD. In the middle of the laundry room there's a toilet. Just in the middle of it. No door or anything to that room. A small second bedroom was built half assed, and the master bath has a black shower and black toilet, and some sort of old pipes with a washcloth stuffed in them. He also has phone jacks in all the bathrooms which is just GROSS. And he put down a hideous green laminate floor in the master bath. The expansion space in the attic doesn't have a staircase going up to it, so it would be difficult to finish building it out. The sunroom has big cracks around the windows, and would have to be replaced immediately. There's a lot of work to be done in that house, but it is beautiful. It's one to think about because of its potential, but it just doesn't have a lot of practical living space for us. Our realtor is taking us out again to look at 10 more houses Sunday, including the one we're most interested in.

So Thursday - the circus around our current house started. Our TV went out last weekend, but it's still under the extended warranty from Best Buy. They came Thurs afternoon to "fix it" which really meant they were taking it to ALABAMA for two weeks. WHAT?? We live in Nashville???? Why would they not have a local repair company? I don't get that. I don't really care about the TV, but I do care about the large empty spot a 53 inch wide screen TV leaves in your living room when your house is going on the market in 4 days. Shortly after they left another one of our agent's staff came to drop off a packet we have to fill out and to take a pic of the exterior of our house. One nosy neighbor (also our yard guy) was STARING. I can't wait for them all to start talking!! Of course he then came over to start mowing our yard - right as the pressure washing company came to clean our house. What a ZOO! And, to top it off, our daily afternoon monsoon kicked it into high gear. The poor cleaning people put on some panchos and just kept on going. I'd like to say they did a great job but they really didn't. I had to call and complain today because they totally didn't wash the cleaners off the backside of our house and all the windows on the back look downright sticky. She called me back to say they couldn't come out to fix it until WEDNESDAY. I told her that was completely unacceptable so they will be back tomorrow (we'll see). They'd better be or I'll be stopping payment on my check ASAP. I hate companies like this one, they are just jackasses.

So this weekend we have a few more house projects to do (gutter cleaning and packing mostly) and I'd like to get a nice long run around the neighborhood in tomorrow morning. Hopefully the weather and temperatures will cooperate!

Have a great weekend everyone! Good luck to everyone running marathons this weekend - San Diego and Deadwood!!